Indiana first of four teams to have bye before playing NU

Thanks to a bye week, Indiana has an extra week to prepare for Northwestern, beginning a recurring theme for the Wildcats this season.

Because of quirks in the schedule, Minnesota, Nebraska and Michigan State also have byes before playing the Wildcats.

"Hopefully, at the end of the run we say it wasn't an advantage," coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "That's the goal. That's something that's out of our control. I saw it at the beginning part of the season when I went through the schedule -- 'Oh, that's interesting'. At times it has been a benefit to us and at other times we haven't come out of the bye and played very well ourselves."